En Voyage: Hybridity and Vodou in Haitian Art was a distinctive collaborative project for Grinnell College students. Developed as part of the advanced Exhibition Seminar in the Art History Department, the course gave students the rare opportunity to produce a full-scale exhibition within a single semester. Nine student curators worked closely with museum and college staff on every aspect of the project, including exhibition design, public programming, education, and the production of a publication.
The exhibition’s focus on Haitian art grew out of Professor Rivera’s prior collaborations with artist Edouard Duval-Carrié, who loaned works for the exhibition. In proposing the seminar, Rivera partnered with the Waterloo Center for the Arts (WCA), which opened its collection to the students. The curators selected the works themselves, developed the checklist, and shaped the exhibition’s thematic framework. The seminar emphasized critical and creative practice and ultimately served as a catalyst for the HADC project. It was during a planning trip to Waterloo with the student curators that the idea for HADC first took shape.
En Voyage demonstrates the power of collaboration to reframe Haitian art and to imagine new scholarly and curatorial possibilities. A PDF copy of the publication is available upon request.
